Arsene Wenger has paid Sam Allardyce a wonderfully loaded compliment by calling him a “very competent manager”.
The pair meet on Sunday as Arsenal take on Crystal Palace, now managed by Allardyce, at the Emirates Stadium.
“He is a specialist, he is competent, he is intelligent, and he has always specialised in having an impact on the teams he has taken on in a difficult situation,” Wenger told Sky Sports.
“Certainly he will create a level of urgency, and confidence will lift, and we have to even more focus on our performance, and try to be at our best to beat them.
“He is a very competent manager. I think as well in the last five or six years he has adapted to the style of the players he had, and he has been much more versatile than he was 10 years ago. Overall I think he has developed extremely well.”
Arsene Wenger believes Sam Allardyce's experience made him an attractive option to Crystal Palace: https://t.co/EBE83x0xRu #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/u3GxXe1XRW
— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) December 30, 2016